"Feeling This" is a song by American rock band Blink-182, released on October 2, 2003 as the lead single from the group's fifth studio album, Blink-182 (2003). The lyrics were written by Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge. The "verses" of the song were written by guitarist Tom DeLonge, and the "chorus" and the "bridge" was written by the bassist Mark Hoppus. The drums were created by drummer Travis Barker. The lyrics are purely sexual in nature; the band attempted to juxtapose lust and passion between verses and choruses, thematically connected with a wistful, regretful tone. The song's composition contains elements of spoken word in the verses and a Latin-inspired backbeat in the chorus, and the song ends in a melodic, harmonized duet split between DeLonge and Hoppus.

"Feeling This" was the first track that came together for Blink-182 in early 2003.[1] The song was written in one day. "I think if I sit there and try to analyze everything, what would be cool here or there, I just feel like I get so far away from what I would do, and I think your gut instinct is usually the best thing," said Barker at the time.[2] The lyrics were written with Hoppus and DeLonge going into separate rooms—Hoppus writing the choruses and DeLonge writing the verses. The two had not spoken to each other about the lyrics ahead of time, and it turned out that the two had both written about sexual intercourse. When put together, the song represents the lustful side of sex during the verses, the passionate side in the bridge and the romantic side in the chorus, creating a juxtaposition between both voices.[1][3][4] It has been interpreted as a description for failed romance, one that "illustrates a scenario of lust, ambivalence and regret."[5]

For Barker, the song's drum track was "super in respect to John Bonham. [...] We were kind of messing around with the verse. It’s like, ’Well, I want to do a four-bar drum intro and just see how it works for the song.’ And we never second-guessed it. We were like, ’That sounds rad.’"[2]

"Feeling This" opens with flanged drums.[5] Although computer technology offered it during the album’s production, according to Hoppus, the band opted to produce the effect "the old school way", opting for two tape machines.[1] Originally taking root as a faster-paced drum 'n' bass-inspired track, Barker imitated that genre's groove on open hi-hats.[2] The influence of John Bonham is most explicit in the song's first few seconds, in which Barker performs eighth-note triplets on his bass drum, much like the Led Zeppelin song "Good Times Bad Times" (1969).[2] Following a sample from Captain America (1990) ("Get ready for action!"), the song bursts into a "stabbing guitar rhythm" over the verses, which are "half-barked" and contain a near hip-hop reminiscent delivery.[5][8] The "harmony-rich" chorus of the song, which contains the refrain "Fate fell short this time, smile fades in the summer / Place your hand in mine, I'll leave when I wanna", is replete with a "syncopated Latin-flavored backbeat."[5][9] In the chorus, Barker plays a cowbell, which he initially included as a joke, believing Hoppus and DeLonge would "hate it."[2]

The song is particularly memorable for a section of the chorus of the song (right before the bridge begins), in which guitarist Tom DeLonge sings the vocals loudly and off-key. According to the liner notes for Blink-182, DeLonge stated that the recording was done in a 30-foot-long (9.1 m) living room at the home previously mentioned, with microphones 10 to 15 feet (3.0 to 4.6 m) away.[1] The end of the song is a melodic duet between the band's two vocalists, both singing conflicting but harmonizing parts.[5]

The band picked "Feeling This" as the first single because they felt it representative of the transition the band had undergone since fourth studio album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001).[4] A slightly different version of the song had been released previously as part of the soundtrack for the video game Madden NFL 2004 under the erroneous title "Action".[5] Barker explained in an interview that "'Action' just sounded kind of dorky to us. Like we would always call it 'Feeling This' and then someone at our label, I think, like wrote it as 'Action' one time and sent out singles to people. And it was always supposed to be 'Feeling This'."[10] The track peaked high at number 2 on the BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart, hovering at that position for three weeks.[11]

The video follows students at a dystopian-based correctional facility who rebel and take over the establishment, intertwined with shots of the band performing outside the prison in a cage, providing a "soundtrack to the chaos."[13] Hoppus described their idea for the facility: "It's kind of a combination of prep school and reform school, and it's very repressed and kids are being held down. There is a lot of authority and a lot of strict regiment, and the kids lash out and take over the school and destroy the place."[4] The band's main goal for the video was for it to resemble an art piece, much in the same way they viewed the production of the album, to keep in line with tone.[4] To this end, they enlisted director David LaChapelle (known at the time for shooting Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" video). LaChapelle's input—which "ranges from an evil prison warden cracking a whip at marching school kids to escapees ripping their uniforms and doing acrobatic moves down the hallways"—was regarded by the band as "completely wacked out and twisted, which is exactly what we love."[4]

In the narrative, the boys and girls are separated at the school and sexually repressed, and release their energies when they meet between a glass window.[4] The clip was shot at the abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail north of downtown Los Angeles.[4]